While it was definitely a mostly anti crowd at the Miami Dade Democratic Party’s town hall on the Dolphins stadium public financing deal, there was one high-profile local Dem who is thinks the agreement is wonderful.
Democratic superfundraiser Chris Korge, who admitted that his position is based solely on the fact that it is good for his $45-million airport news stand business, is also upset that the Miami Dade Dems not only made a decision on their position before the deal was struck, but also because they did not let him speak at the community meeting.
“I’m offended. This is a show,” Korge told Ladra in the parking lot outside the Universalist Church near Dadeland.
“It should not be this way,” he said, about the participants not being allowed to ask questions or participate directly. Even though there were index cards and the moderator, Miami Herald political reporter Marc Caputo, said he got about 40 (most were for Miami First Coalition co-chair and attorney H.T. Smith, a pro-stadium, $18,000 cheerleader). Later, Caputo saw Korge and said he had seen his index card. “I saw ‘I want to say something. Chris Korge.’ And I looked up and searched for a bald head but I didn’t see you.”
“This should not be a campaign stunt for a party,” Korge told me afterwards in the parking lot. “I’ve worked for more than 20 years and helped raise millions of dollars for their candidates.”
But it was the other side that requested no questions from the audience, said Miami Dade Democratic Party Chairwoman Annette Taddeo, who represented the anti-stadium stance at Wednesday’s debate.
“It was the Marlins suggestion and we agreed it was a good suggestion,” Taddeo told Ladra Thursday, quickly correcting herself after making the mistake everyone makes. “I mean it was the Dolphins’ suggestion.”
She said she did not object because she felt it would be more productive.
“You have a lot of people and then they don’t as a question, they just give a speech,” she said.
Korge, a former Miami City Attorney, was probably going to make a speech. He wanted to warn the audience that we are in fear of losing the Dolphins if we don’t vote yes.
“I want the Dolphins to be here for another 30 years,” he said, regarding the condition on the deal that forbids Ross or any other subsequent owner to leave the city for term of the agreement. He went to the meeting armed with a list of cities that had lost teams because facilities were not improved: The used-to-be Baltimore Colts went to Indianapolis for $619 million. The used-to-be St. Louis Cardinals moved to Arizona when “they didn’t get what they wanted” for $308 million. It’s what he wanted to stay.
And if the Dolphins don’t get what they want? “The Dolphins will not stay another ten years,” he told me after the meeting had ended. And that, he said, may be the threat will then cause people to react — too late. “I think we’ll end up with a worse deal a few years from now.”
Korge likened the renovations and upgrades at the privately-owned SunLife Stadium to the construction of the American Airlines arena and the Adrienne Arscht Performing Arts Center.
“It’s not an investment,” he said, vearing away from the argument used by the Miami Dolphins organization and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who Korge says should have signed the agreement without a referendum (like the commission might have done that).
“These things are the fabric of a community. It’s these things that make us who we are,” Korge said.
He sounds very smart and convincing. He swore multiple times that he was not working for the Dolphins or the county or anybody connected to the deal. He disclosed several times that it was good for his $45 million concession business in six airports (soon expanding a $70 million business, he said).
And he admitted to being a friend of the mayor’s. But he doesn’t think that means anything.
“He’s a friend. I’ve supported him. But I have an 11-year contract. He won’t be mayor when my contract comes up,” Korge, who has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, told me.
He told everyone he spoke to, not just me that he isn’t working for the Dolphins and I believe him. I mean, he doesn’t have to. But he certainly has latched on to one of their subversive scare tactics: Vote yes or we lose the team.
And he may have arrived with Miami First Coalition co-chair Jorge Arizurieta. The two sat next to each other during the town hall and whispered to each other throughout.
Ladra told both men that she didn’t want to lose the Dolphins either and wanted to trust in our electeds to make a good deal for us. But she smelled smoke because the process and the shotgun timeline seemed to be manipulated. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
Korge admitted that there was probably a delay in bringing this to voters because it was convenient. The Dolphins and Gimenez had to know this was coming. Why didn’t they put this to voters in September or November of last year, when they could have gotten a bigger turnout?
They almost laughed at me because I answered my own question. And they practically nodded in agreement with attorney and fellow anti-stadium gladiator Steve Cody was standing in the parking lot with us after the meeting and quoted The Art of War by Sun Tzu: “You must know the battle ground. You must know the time of battle.”
“Because politics is politics,” Korge said. “When have you seen government do anything differently.”
I don’t know. Call me silly. But I thought we elected people into government to protect us from that kind of timetable manipulation of the electoral process.
Chris Korge breaks with Dems on Dolphins stadium deal added by Ladra on
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